They wrote: "We cannot help but judge others on the basis of their speech.

"Unfortunately, when it comes to taboo language, it is a common assumption that people who swear frequently are lazy, do not have an adequate vocabulary, lack education, or simply cannot control themselves.

"The overall finding of this set of studies, that taboo fluency is positively correlated with other measures of verbal fluency.

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"A voluminous taboo lexicon may better be considered an indicator of healthy verbal abilities rather than a cover for their deficiencies.

"Speakers who use taboo words understand their general expressive content.”

They also found that the people who swear the most were likelier to draw a line at expletives that were "inappropriate" like racial slurs.